Nya…

Ninjago Writers, I just fixed one of your biggest mistakes ever, your welcome.

One thing that never made sense to me was season 3’s love triangle. Nya breaking up with Jay out of the blue was out of character and bad writing, but the bigger issue for me was always Cole. Cole had no reason to go along with Nya, he never liked her before, and he never saw the perfect match machine. So why the HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!

So… here is a little short I’ve been working on for a while trying to explain motivations.

Nya…

(A Ninjago One Shot)

Jay and Cole talk over the whole love triangle thing sometime after season 3. Happy Reading!

“So… Nya.” Jay trailed off.

“Nya.” Cole repeated.

“Should we… talk about-“

“I mean, we don’t have to.” Cole insisted.

“But, like… we probably should.”

Cole sighed. “Yeah.”

“What… happened between you two? Why did any of this happen?”

“I don’t know.” Cole shrugged. “Poor timing, I guess. With the perfect match system, and-”

“No,” Jay shook his head. “I mean what happened from your perspective. Like, I didn’t even know you were… interested-“

“I wasn’t!” Cole was noticeably tense now. “That’s the thing, I wasn’t! She’s like a sister to me! I had never even thought about dating her, I thought you two were way cute together!”

“And we were!” Jay crossed his arms.

“You totally were! But I don’t know, she came up to me all flirty, and the whole prospect seemed kind of… exciting-”

“Exciting?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never had a girlfriend before. I thought it would be kinda nice to have a girl on my arm, and Nya is…”

“Hot?” Jay raised an eyebrow.

“She’s way hot!”

“She’s gorgeous,” Jay corrected him.

“Point being, she’s a pretty good girl to have looking at you, and I didn’t know what had happened between you two. Maybe you had a falling out, broke up,” Jay rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know!” Cole defended. “Why else would she be talking to me? It was so spontaneous.”

“Tell me about it.” Jay mumbled.

“I thought maybe she just wanted to use me to get you jealous. That didn’t seem too bad. Like, it happens in TV shows all the time, and it’s always resolved by the end of the episode.” Jay nodded in agreement. TV tropes were a language Jay understood loud and clear. “So, I figured it wouldn’t last that long, and you guys would be back together quick and simple. Plus, it could be fun to hang out with her, and pretend to be in a relationship and all that.”

“Pretend? Like you were just role playing?!” Jay shook Cole’s shoulders, before Cole stabilized them both.

“I don’t know! It didn’t seem that serious to me at the time. None of it did. None of it held any weight, because I didn’t like her all that much. But then you got involved, and it was all serious, and I didn’t want to just quit, like at that point I was already invested in it. I knew I didn’t really care, but at that point it was kind of just like… the principle, you know?”

“The principle of stealing my girlfriend?” Jay’s fingers dug into his shoulders, Cole slowly removing them.

“The principle of me being a believable rebound guy. It wasn’t to prove anything to you necessarily, I think it was more for myself.”

“You needed a self confidence boost?” Jay calmed down, suddenly confused.

“Well, yeah. That and, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She needed to make her own decision. I didn’t want to just eliminate myself as an option for her if she was… for some odd reason not going to be happy with you.”

Jay thought for another moment before accepting defeat. “…Yeah.”

“But I realized that I didn’t really want her. I mean, I liked her fine, but I don’t like her like you like her, because you… love her.”

Jay sighed. “Yeah. Let her know for me sometime, will you?”

“Don’t worry about it. She’s going through some weird independence streak right now or something. She’ll get over it. Deep down… I think she still loves you.”

“Still?” Jay was a bit surprised Cole thought that way.

“Yeah still! You guys are like the classic love story. You’ve got to go through bumps like this, but in the end you’ll always get back together. That’s just how girls like Nya work.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Jay smiled halfheartedly. “Thanks. You give pretty good advice for not being in a relationship.”

“Not really. I just give good advice on Nya, because we’ve been friends for years now.”

“I’ve known her for just as long as you have.”

“Yeah, but I actually talked to her like a normal person instead of like my sixth grade crush.”

“…Yeah, that kinda makes a lot of sense.”